General Election 1 - trashing the Tories

It’s election time.

Read the Tory party manifesto here: http://www.conservatives.com/pdf/manifesto-uk-2005.pdf. This would cost £2.50 in the shops!! But I bring it to you for free.

An important read, even if it’s all about knowing the enemy . However, if you cannot be arsed or feel insulted to read this document read my précis that’s as unbiased as Kennedy’s election blog or Blair’s election diary.

The manifesto is notable mainly for its complete acceptance of Blair/Brown politics…

…and then ridiculousness like:

• within a month “we will bring back Matron to take charge”. What, Matron from Carry On?
• the usual rubbish about immigration and asylum being in chaos. BTW, for those open to the radical I suggest reading http://www.noii.org.uk/, for those a little less so go to the excellent and informative exhibition at Camden’s impressive Jewish Museum (http://www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/)
• the usual con-game around taxes – reduce taxes but increase government spending and squaring it by reducing bureaucracy. It was interesting on ‘Today’ this morning to see how all the parties are going crazy about the Longbridge plant, but fighting to sack as many civil servants as possible!
• increasing military spending – who the fuck wants that!!!

However, to be fair, there’s some good stuff in it:

• devolution of power to professionals (already happening under Labour and LibDems have a more developed policy than the Tories on this anyway)
• more control to local authorities and reduction of Council Tax bill for pensioners (LibDem has much more coherent ‘localisation’ plan, Greens’ plan is also more coherent than the Tories)
• strategic reform of Lords, stronger Parliament and ‘English votes for English laws’ in Westminster (not sure of LibDem’s view here, or Labour’s)

This may turn into an election series...